


Complementary

by thesometimeswarrior



Series: The Grand Lotus [2]
Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Canon Compliant, Family, Ficlet, Gen, Grief/Mourning, Pre-Canon, Pre-Series, Self-Acceptance, Self-Hatred, War
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-07
Updated: 2017-05-07
Packaged: 2018-10-29 06:57:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 780
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10848810
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thesometimeswarrior/pseuds/thesometimeswarrior
Summary: "So,areyou Fire Nation?" The man’s tone isn’t quite accusatory, but his gaze pierces Iroh from across the Pai Sho board.Usually, he responds withI used to beorIn a past life, I was… But today he is thinking of his son even more than usual, is too tired to dance around what he still knows is the truth."Yes," he responds, finally.Iroh, one year after abandoning the siege.





	Complementary

“So, _are_ you Fire Nation?” The man’s tone isn’t quite accusatory, but his gaze pierces Iroh from across the Pai Sho board.

Iroh looks down at his cup, focusing on his distorted reflection in the tea. It’s hardly the first time he’s been asked this in the almost a year that he’s served as a runner for the Order. And he’s never quite lied—Truth, after all, is a key tenant of their organization, and at least _part_ of that is honesty—but usually he responds with _I used to be_ or _In a past life, I was_. Today, however, he is thinking of his son even more than usual, is too tired to dance around what he still knows is the truth. 

“Yes,” he responds, finally. 

“How do you make that work?”

“I am sorry?”

“Well, it just seems like the Fire Nation is against what the Order stands for.”

“In what way? Are we not an organization about Truth, Beauty, and Philosophy, one that transcends the division of the Four Nations? Surely, that includes the Fire Nation…”

“Well, sure, but I haven’t heard of so many Fire Nation members.”

“What of the great Sages—”

“Historically, yes. But I mean lately. Before meeting you today, I’d heard of _two_ current Fire Nation members of the Order—and one of them is Jeong Jeong the Deserter, and he can’t ever go back home, can he? So that leaves—what? One active member within the Fire Nation itself? And the War—”

“The War and the Fire Nation are not synonymous.” Iroh is not sure from where his sudden certainty comes when before today he was all too eager to distance himself from his heritage—has, at times, almost forsworn it altogether—because of the War. Is he now going to _defend_ it? And why?

“Perhaps not.” Iroh’s host purses his lips, appears unconvinced.

“Forgive me.” Iroh bows from where he sits. “It was most rude of me to interrupt you. I am eager to hear what you were going to say.”

The other man nods, continues. “I was only going to say that the War seems to be against everything we’re trying to do, doesn’t it? As in the Fire Nation Imperialism—spreading culture and enforcing one type of knowledge—it’s against the free exchange of philosophies and ideas, isn’t it? If the Fire Lord gets his way, we’ll all be reciting Fire Nation philosophy, and that will be considered wisdom. It’ll be all that we know, all that children are taught...And knowledge like that, all from one place, it’s boring and rigid and _stale_...”

“Yes, I agree.”

“So you’re against the War, then?”

“Yes.” _Though not only because knowledge from one source becomes stale_ , Iroh thinks, envisioning Lu Ten’s body.

“Like Jeong Jeong the Deserter.”

“Well,” says Iroh, the image of Lu Ten—before he was a corpse—growing stronger in his mind, and the image of Ran and Shaw and the message contained in their fire—that Fire is _Life_ and not just Destruction and Rage and Death—and the image of his nephew, Zuko, innocent and strong and _good_ … “Not quite like Jeong Jeong.”

“What do you mean?”

“Jeong Jeong believes that the Fire Nation is inherently evil. That there is nothing about it redeemable, that all of us are inherently bad, and whenever we harness ourselves to do good, we are repressing our true nature.”

“And you disagree?”

“Yes,” says Iroh, suddenly aware that this is not a lie. “I believe in the Order. But I also believe in my Nation, what we were, and what we can be again.”

(Who might his son have been—his honorable, pondering, strong son—Iroh wonders, if not for his own toxic influence, if not for that terrible Siege, if not for the War? Who might his nephew—his nephew whom he has not seen in so long but who, Iroh had seen even at the boy’s young age, had such goodness and love in him—who might that boy become? What good they could do, for the world…what Life they could bring…Love and Peace and Balance…)

“You don’t think they’re mutually exclusive?” asks the other man, snapping Iroh out of his thoughts.

“No,” responds Iroh. “I do not.”

The other man nods, considering, and when Iroh leaves, several hours later, he knows his path forward. He sends a message to the Order, about a change of location. He will no longer be an Earth Kingdom-based messenger. Tomorrow, for the first time since abandoning the Siege, he will board a ship bound for the Fire Nation capitol.

Tomorrow, after almost three years, he will finally return home.

**Author's Note:**

> Hope you enjoyed! I love comments!


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